78 
JOURNAL or THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
The corm is a very important feature, and one which deserves 
consideration—its shape, its habit, the mode of issue of the fibre, a 
careful examination of which will probably throw valuable light on 
this vexed question; for if we consult the authorities we shall 
most certainly be led astray in many instances: for example, in the 
Bot. Mag., plate 1001, is figured a jfiant under the name of Cyc. 
liedercefolium , which on examination proves to be vernum. The 
same plant is figured in Sweet’s El. G-arden as repandum, pi. 117 ; 
and again the same writer, pi. 9, figures C. ibericwn, but calls it 
vernum ; and later writers, copying from the earlier ones, have only 
perpetuated these errors. 
In all, though many more names have been given, for all 
practical purposes the number of species of Cyclamen may be 
reduced to six, viz. : — 
C. Coum. 
,, ibericum, incl. C. AtTcinsi. 
„ vernum , syn. repandum. 
,, europceum. 
,, liedercefolium , with its geographical forms— 
C. Africanum or macrophyllum, and 
C. Grcecum or latifolium. 
,, persicum. 
There may be, I should say there are, other little-known 
species to which at present I have not had access. 
There is another point of distinction worthy of note, illustrating 
as it does the fact that every season has its Cyclamen. 
Persicum and vernum cheer us in the spring with their bright 
vivid flowers. 
Europceum comes on later, and may well be distinguished as 
the summer-flowering species. In the autumn we have liederce¬ 
folium ; and when that is done, all through the winter the chain is 
completed by the little Coum and ibericum , which are then in full 
bloom. This is a very marked distinction, by the aid of which 
closely resembling individuals may perhaps be determined with 
certainty. 
There seem to be four distinct habits of the conns or tubers, as 
follows:— 
Cor ms smooth, roots proceeding from 
the centre of the under surface . Coum, ibericum , vernum. 
Corms rough, roots proceeding from 
the base of the tuber, but more 
or less from all parts . 
europceum. 
